At least he got the Mido booking decision correct - pity that he didn't see
the second transgression and send him off.

Attendance: 28,875
- empty seats everywhere, the presence of a large group of bairns in the
East Stand with identical caps a giveaway that the smogs were indulging in
buckshee seat-filling.

Ashley in his
Sunday best

NUFC
owner Mike Ashley turned up for what was his first competitive
Newcastle game (it is rumoured that he attended a pre-season
home game and watched from an executive box).

There was no doubt about his presence at this one - sitting in the
Directors Box clad in a Toon shirt (Smith 17 on the back) and with a
rather large gentleman quite literally watching his back a few feet
away. He'll earn his money if his gaffer repeats this feat at the
Stadium of Light....

TV footage showed him failing to contain his excitement when our goals
went in and getting to his feet to give it large with his companion
Chris Mort.

Our take on the Mido events:

With Mike Ashley's appearance on
Sunday providing a visible riposte to reports of him selling the club
for a quick profit, those same journalists unfortunately didn't have
far to look for their next Toon-related headlining-making target.

Clearly audible chants from the
travelling Toon fans directed at home fans and Boro striker Mido
visibly wound the player up and provoked an outbreak of gesturing as
he confronted the away section after scoring.

As well as reporting on the game,
press box occupants were kept busy deciphering the chants, before
suppressing grins and then penning their outraged missives.

While some reports correctly labelled the chanting as "distasteful"
(The Mail), other more hysterical writers donned their UN peace
keeping body armour before reporting on:

"vile and ignorant
Islamophobic abuse.... stereotyped as a terrorist bomber in a barrage
of anti-Arab abuse" (Guardian)

Post-match comments of Mido on Sunday:
“I just think it’s ridiculous. They were taking the p*ss.
Maybe some of them were drunk or something. I heard it, it was very
clear and I understood what they were saying.

“The chants made me want to
score more goals. I was delighted to score and I wanted another.

“I am used to it from opposition
fans - but I was really frustrated when the referee gave me a yellow
card.

“I don’t understand why I got
booked. I was told it was for security reasons but I don’t see how
that’s possible. I don’t see what I did which would affect the
security of the fans.

"I just put my finger to my mouth to say ‘quiet’. But I
suppose that’s football and you have to get on with it.”

Taking the p*ss eh? whatever next?RE: the hand signals though - that's the player lying and the
press box occupants either unable or unwilling to see what went on
before them live or on the video playback. Just report the facts that
fit eh?

3,000 people behind the goal though will tell them exactly which Olde
English gesture Mido revealed on two occasions - whether it gets
"officially" reported or not.

But in the words of Catherine Tate - are we bothered? Can anybody
explain what difference any of this made?

Did we rush to find a constable and report our righteous indignation?
did we f**k - we just gave Mido back what he gave us and thought no
more about it.

It certainly didn't stir up the locals (those that bothered to turn up
at all), the post-match mood echoing that of the pre-game buildup in
being less and less threatening year on year.

And it's a bit rich for football writers to suddenly start becoming
outraged at the utterances of the Newcastle fans on Teesside.

Variants of the unsavoury child abuse anthems that are trotted out
annually were first heard back at Ayresome Park - talk of "paedo's"
isn't new, even if rhyming it with Mido was.

So:

kiddy fiddling jibes = OK
terrorist talk = bang out of order

Did those same writers and those same papers embark on a sizeist
crusade after those same travelling fans sang songs about Sammy Lee
being a dwarf two weeks ago? No.

It's got nothing to do with people in
£300 coats making shapes in the street or chucking darts at each
other - it's just football, along with people drinking to excess, crap
toilets and the bloke next to you smelling like he's not washed his
strip since he bought it.

Mido was baited as opposition players have been since the game began -
Frank Worthington, David Speedie, Dennis Wise anyone? - and he
reacted, as he has done previously.

We're not suggesting everyone shouting "Mido, he's got a bomb
you know" or "he's gonna blow in a minute"
was aware that the player was once banned for six months by his
country for kicking off with his coach at pitchside.

What a few more people are aware of though is that the bloke seems to
have a sizeable ego, previously told journalists he'd signed for us
when he hadn't and often seems "excitable" when seen live
and on TV.

In reality it's all regrettable and avoidable and makes us look like a
bunch of clowns, but that's just our opinion - where does one draw the
line - and who draws it? Who defines what is religious or sectarian
abuse and just exactly how do you police it?

When people with learning difficulties are being kicked to death
twenty minutes up the road from here and children shot in the head at
the other end of the M62, forgive us if we find it hard to get
really worked up about any of this frankly juvenile cobblers.

PS - The waffle below is deliberately Mido-less as we've covered our
angle above. However it was noticed that the striker spent the seconds
before the second half got underway having tape applied to his hands -
was it really to stick his fingers together and stop him making more
of those gestures?

Goals

22mins A fine effort from the right boot of Charles N'Zogbia, as he
cut in from the left and curled a supreme strike beyond Mark Schwarzer (who
appeared to be dressed as a banana) and into the top right hand corner 1-0

28 mins
Sucker punch #1: Rochemback's through ball found an unwatched Mido and
he clumsily evaded Harper before rolling his shot home and rushing to the
away fans who had been mocking him all afternoon.

Some clearly visible gestures and abuse rightly saw Mido booked before
play restarted, only for the Egyptian continue with further "V"
signs at the away end once play resumed.

Similar gesturing was later replicated by Arca when he was barracked for his
mackem past. 1-1

Half time: Middlesbrough 1 Newcastle 1

77mins Former
smoggy Geremi found Mark Viduka in the box with his back to goal and being
snuggled by Woogate. The Australian striker trapped the ball on his thigh
(or his thing as the BBC web commentary wrote) before rolling the defender
and volleying the ball home.

As
he'd pledged before the game, the 150th goal of his career in Britain
(Celtic, Leeds, Smogs and now us) saw his colleagues throng round him but an
absence of celebrations from the scorer.
2-1

80 mins Sucker punch #2: a weak defensive header from a half-cleared
corner fell to Arca on the edge of the box and his precise effort
beat the unsighted Harper 2-2

Full time: Middlesbrough 2 Newcastle 2

We
Said

Samsaid:

"It feels like we've lost. We let the opposition get goals, they
didn't create them and that's totally unacceptable. If we are to be successful,
then that will have to stop. Home or away you should never surrender a lead and
we have – twice.

"We will have to deal with those injury situations tomorrow and see whether
that takes us into the market on a more ferocious basis this week, which it
might have to.

"I am well short now defensively, which is where my biggest problems have
lain all summer.

"They are back there again now because of two injuries. It is typical, you
always seem to get injuries where you are short.

“We are short in that area and we picked up not just one, but two injuries,
and certainly one looks quite serious.

“With the window shutting, we will have to have a good look around and see how
we go on.”

On Viduka's goal and consequent response:

"He knew a lot of people here and said if he scored the winner he wouldn't
celebrate too much, but he's done his job here today - he's as disappointed as
the rest that it wasn't the winner.''

On Ashley's appearance:

"He didn't hide away – did he? – wearing his Newcastle shirt."

Viduka added:
"It was special coming to my old club and scoring – I'll always remember
that one. I was so excited to get my first goal for Newcastle, then I realised I
needed to tone down a little bit.

"I'm very pleased about it. It was nice to get off the mark – it was very
important for me. Hopefully, it's the first of many."

They
Said

Poor man's Peter Stringfellow, Gareth Southgate
stroked his lion's mane and chipped in with:
"I was delighted with
the quality we showed, especially because a few of our players didn’t have the
right to be on the pitch. Jonathan Woodgate was struggling yesterday with a
migraine and Luke Young has hardly had a pre-season.

"I had no intention of playing
Jonathan. But once Chris Riggott and Andrew Davies were ruled out, I had no
choice.”

Of Viduka's goal:
"Inevitable - and typical of Mark. He was fantastic here for us and that's
the sort of goal we've seen him score many times here.

"We wish he hadn't done it today but he is a cracking lad. It gave us an
uphill task but again we've shown the fitness and the character to come back.''

On the Mido goings-on:

It’s OK for 3,000 to abuse one
person. But when the boot is on the other foot, he gets punished.

“In terms of civil liberties, I find that
very strange. After scoring the goal, we had to calm him down a bit.”

Marc Viduka netted against his old side, becoming the 81st
Premier League scorer for NUFC.

Full record against Boro:

P

W

D

L

F

A

SJP

55

29

15

11

93

55

AP/R

56

14

18

24

67

82

League

111

43

33

35

160

137

SJP(FA)*

2

1

0

1

6

4

AP*

2

1

0

1

3

3

SJP(LC)

2

1

1

0

1

0

AP/R

3

1

0

2

4

6

Cup

9

4

1

4

14

13

Tot

120

47

34

39

174

150

* includes qualifying games in 1896 & 1898

Waffle

A mixed day for Newcastle's management, owner, players and fans on a
ground where they've enjoyed more good times than bad in the top flight.

The point maintained their enviable Premiership record at the Riverside and
extended our unbeaten start to the season to three games - our best start
since 2001.

However Allardyce was rightly vexed by his side's inability to protect their
leads for more than three and six minutes respectively. Maybe those watching
in black and white (Ashley excepted) are just a bit more used to this sort
of thing...

And with less than week until the closing of the transfer window, injuries
to our right back and his replacement at least partially nullified the
club's successes in boosting their defensive ranks. Get used to it Sam -
we've had a lifetime of this.

If nothing else that mini injury may see Solano sticking around until at
least the turn of the year to provide some proven cover at right back and
hopefully notch those two goals that would see him reach a landmark half
century of strikes in our colours.

Confronted with a short-handed but still lively home side, a point wasn't a
bad return from the afternoon given the forced reshuffling that saw Carr
limp off within five minutes, Ramage leave on a stretcher after half time
and Geremi play in at least three different positions during the game.

The appearance of Cacapa for his first meaningful action in England at least
provided the United boss with some positive news from a defensive
perspective, with the Brazilian quickly looking at home with a no-nonsense
approach to defending and no mean turn of pace when required.

One late intervention to whip the ball off the toes of an attacker was also
worthy of mention - but of course ignored in the match highlights provided
by an increasingly irritating BBC - who felt it a better use of time to show
photographs of pundits in their primary school photos.

Given's return to proceedings on the bench was also something of a fillip to
the Magpies - although Harper here continued the decent form he'd showed
against Villa and made another noteworthy fingertip save.

Up front the departure of Martins from the field after another relatively
unproductive afternoon wasn't without incident as he reluctantly
acknowledged Allardyce and ignored the Oba chants from the away end.

His strike partner Viduka had scarcely featured much more, until he found
himself in familiar predator's territory - taking the ball in the box and
virtually ignoring his covering defender to slot the ball home.

The aforesaid defensive woes meant the Allardyce was forced to choose
between Ameobi and Owen for his final replacement, with the latter getting
the nod and seeing one half-chance evade his boot.

Overall the draw was probably a fair result, with our defence twice
crucially failing to hold out and the team still inevitably having that
"work in progress" feel that comes with the level of changes on
and off the field we've been through recently.

Against that though we maintained our unbeaten record for the season and
have an eminently winnable game next Saturday when Titus & Co. return.

Wednesday's game against Barnsley is well-timed, allowing Allardyce to give
Owen and Shola a runout to boost their fitness and also introducing Enrique
to the fray.

That last move is crucial to helping balance the side, allowing Zog to be
pushed forward down the left flank to provide some wing balance with Milner
- and take some of the burden off the latter.

With forgotten men like Emre and Babayaro still to be sighted and Barton a
month away from kicking a ball, this team is in a state of flux and will
continue to be until midnight on Friday.

However, there's still work to be done if we're not to repeat the folly of
previous seasons when trying to go into a sequence of games under-strength
and hoping for good fortune.

Experienced toon watchers will tell you that's a risk that seldom comes off
round these parts, but at least Ashley has seen the situation with his own
eyes - and was presumably already aware that while both Ramage and Carr were
squad members neither were obvious names on a first choice XI team sheet.

Those injuries exacerbated the situation, but this was still a work in
progress then, with unfinished business to attend to. Do your dealing.